by Martin Dansky

Created on: July 09, 2008

I would like to think she still has the time for friends after all she has lost so many now. Once a child and now an old lady she is still full of life that propels those creaky joints into action. It is as if she would be conscious of the effort it takes her to move a heavier object around the house but she would never plead for assistance, oh no!
This is still a lady of the house although that house has diminished its size and is more like a shared lodging. Her friends used to be home and no one answers the phone when she calls.

Older people fascinate me, how they continue their routines and adapt to their physical restrictions or sometimes fail to do so. Here she lived with the hope of returning to an independent dwelling and have a group of friends over. She used to say she would entertain them, but that thought has largely faded.
Neighbors too used to be friends until they would be found lying literally down behind their doors. And before that last moment a friend might give a quiet knock on the door and ask her if she had the newspaper. Sometimes those knocks were from total strangers. Bit the strangers were unified in their destiny and being mostly older women that outlived their men.
So what if there is a neighbor who knocks on her door mistaking the apartment door as hers? The irritation of the wrong call would soon passes as mother moves gently back into her reality of solitude. Nobody in the family has called today and she has just lost her last childhood friend.
Family is closer than friends yet she was bound to both for lack of having any siblings, I would speculate. Now simple pleasures probably take up the time it took her to organize a trip to a neighbor or friend. And even so the book she would read was hardly a friend of the print wasn't accommodating. Poor mom, now having to read with a magnifying glass and unable to see images as clearly as she had when all her friends had a distinctive look and a recognizable smile. Now she has to come up to you closely to see your features.
Such is the transition into old age, the loss of friendships, the re-accommodating and loss of pleasures her young would take for granted. I thought she would want a male friend to keep her company but she has come to an adamant conclusion of not wanting to inherit other problems of old agemeeting a guy who has his share of ailments. Looks like she had experienced enough in having had friends and would rather be friendless!

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